- Conference
- 2006 Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 21 December 2005
- Decision
- Carried
Conference welcomes the recent UNISON research looking at local workplace organisation and membership growth since the launch of the organising agenda in 1997, and how we can improve on them. Conference notes the research findings that a critical mass of stewards who have held office for four or more years have not been exposed to the organising agenda and its advantages to the union and, therefore, welcomes the refresher-training programme One Step Ahead that equips stewards with the latest organising and recruitment skills including mapping techniques to deliver real results in workplace revitalisation and membership growth in line with UNISON’s priority.
Furthermore, Conference recognises the importance of finding an accurate and reliable means of measuring our organising and recruitment activity in health. Conference acknowledges that union density – measurement of actual against potential membership as a proportion of the workforce – is a well established indicator of union organisation. Conference therefore welcomes the establishment of a national project team to evaluate union density among all employers that UNISON organises and, in particular, in health care where density has fallen by five percentage points since 1995.
Conference urges health care branches to:
1. use all available means to encourage stewards to participate on the One Step Ahead programme, which will rejuvenate and revitalise branch organisation and membership growth.
2. support the initiative to establish union density in all health care employers.